Consumer Reports has released a report backing claims that some juice is high in arsenic. Photo Credit: Memorino/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA

In September, a minor tiff began when television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz commissioned a study that found high levels of arsenic in fruit juice. The Food and Drug Administration objected, but a new study by Consumer Reports had similar findings.

FDA considers revising arsenic limits

There has been a growing chorus of calls for the Food and Drug Administration to revise the allowable content of arsenic in fruit juices for years. Arsenic is a deadly toxin. However, it is also a naturally occurring substance.

There is also a difference, according to USA Today, between naturally occurring or organic arsenic and inorganic arsenic, the kind used in pesticides. That is why the FDA is loathe to crack down too harshly on arsenic content of foods like fruit juices, because it is nearly impossible to eliminate all traces of it. Organic arsenic, at the microscopic concentration found in foods, harmlessly washes out of the system. However, after a good deal of negative publicity, the FDA is reportedly looking at revising its guidelines.

Dr. Oz started media fracas

In September, Dr. Oz aired a segment on his television program that highlighted the arsenic content in some popular brands of fruit juice. Dr. Oz, according to the Boston Globe, hired ESML Analytical Inc. to test various juices for arsenic content. They found that of the 36 brands of apple juice they tested, 10 exceeded 10 parts per billion of arsenic, which Dr. Oz contends the limit should be set to. One reached 36 parts per billion.

Consumer Reports, according to MSNBC, recently released a similar analysis of 88 brands of apple and grape juice. The findings backed up Dr. Oz’s claims that levels of arsenic in juices are high. Of the juices tested by Consumer Reports, 10 percent of all samples including four grape juice and five apple juice brands exceeded 10 parts per billion of arsenic, the FDA’s limit for drinking water. Consumer Reports also found most of the arsenic contained in the juices was inorganic.

Why FDA allows more in juice

The FDA’s limit is 23 parts per billion for juice, as the FDA believes that people will consumer more water than juice in a day. Therefore, the agency allows more arsenic in juice because the greater consumption of water will “balance out” the greater arsenic content.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a northern California utility, has agreed to pay $70 million to the California town of San Bruno for a pipeline explosion that killed eight people in 2010. Company says it’s remorseful The San Francisco-based power company’s president, Chris Johns, released a statement Monday, saying PG&E is sorry and eager to […]

Following a standoff in a Washington state county courtroom Friday, a man reportedly escaped after shooting a sheriff’s deputy in the shoulder and stabbing a judge in the neck. The man is still at large. Treachery among the tree farms The incident occurred Friday afternoon in the western Washington town of Montesano, which bills itself […]

A team of Chinese and American scientists have found that Microraptor, a small four winged dinosaur that went extinct about 130 million years ago, was likely black and almost certainly had glossy, iridescent feathers. Until now, the coloring of extinct creatures was a matter of pure speculation. That may no longer be the case. The […]

Adjacent schools in Georgia were locked down for two hours Wednesday after a text message reportedly warned of a “gunman” on campus. Later, it was learned that the message was the result of a smartphone autocorrect function, attempting to “fix” the misspelled slang word “gunna.” A series of mixups A series of mixups led to […]